


Up Through the Night

by xcacophony



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Minor Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 03:30:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5318792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xcacophony/pseuds/xcacophony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She would pick you, you know. She couldn't survive without you." </p><p>"Doesn't matter," Peeta replied, just as quiet, "because I couldn't survive without you." </p><p>[An alternate take on a scene from Mockingjay]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up Through the Night

Peeta quietly smacked his head against the wall behind him in frustration, wishing he could move just a few feet more to grab a drink from the canteen they had laying nearby. It was just a few feet, so close, but he couldn't move far with his right wrist still handcuffed to one of the supporting beams in Tigris' basement.

He groaned, licking his chapped lips for the tenth time and smacked his head against the wall again. He could wake someone up, but he didn't want to risk their ire - he was already certain that Katniss wasn't totally convinced yet not to shoot an arrow in him.

A few minutes later he sighed, looking at the nearby canteen again in want. He felt close to being resigned in his thirst when—

"Peeta? You up?"

Gale.

"Gale?," Peeta whispered, just in case.

"Yeah, you okay?"

Peeta heard the other boy shift for a moment before sitting up, his blanket falling off his chest and into his lap in the process. Gale's hair was wild, sticking up in a thousand places, and Peeta would long to run his hand through it if he wasn't so thirsty.

"Can you get me some water? Please?," Peeta begged.

"Yeah, of course, hold on," Gale replied, moving forward to grab the container and handing it to Peeta's free and outstretched hand.

"Thanks," Peeta said, looking over at Gale for a moment and then taking a sip.

"No problem," Gale replied as he moved to sit next to Peeta, "I wake up ten times a night anyway."

Peeta heard the hitch in Gale's tone, like he was trying hard to keep it steady, and Peeta felt the all-to-familiar knot in his stomach come back.

"To make sure that Katniss is still here?"

"Yeah, that," Gale admitted. His eyes stared at the wall near them for a moment before he turned back toward Peeta, and in the dim light of Tigris' basement Peeta saw Gale's mouth twitch like he wanted to smile but couldn't quite make it. "And you."

Peeta didn't respond for a long moment, knowing wasn't much he could say to that. He hadn't had a real chance to reconnect with Gale since his rescue from the Capitol, everything moving much too fast and him spending most of any downtime in a hospital bed in isolation. He wanted to tell Gale that he was okay, that he loved him, that he wasn't going anywhere, but he knew there was no way to make the words come out without falling back into memories of Snow's mansion.

His eyes caught on Katniss as she shifted in her sleep just a few feet away and he couldn't stop himself.

"She loves you, you know. She as good as told me after they whipped you."

"Not that way, you know that. Though, the way she kissed you in the Quarter Quell...," Gale paused, his fists clenched at his sides and his jaw tense; Peeta swallowed once he realized where this was going. "There's no way I could compete with that."

"It was just part of the show," Peeta replied, feeling frustration begin to bubble up inside him, "Gale, you have to know that. It was just for the show. So we could survive." 

He closed his eyes for a second, sighed, wishing for the millionth time that they were back in District 12, where he could pull Gale toward him and kiss him hard, leaving no doubt how he felt, erasing all of the other boy's memories of seeing Peeta and Katniss kiss over and over for the Capitol.

Peeta shifted his hand a few inches closer to Gale and hoped the boy would shift his own so they could touch. He missed touching Gale, even something as simple as holding his hand.

Gale seemed conflicted for a moment before he forced out, "no, you won her over. Gave up everything for her—"

"Everything? You think I gave us up for Katniss?," Peeta interjected loudly. He knew he had to keep it down, not wake the others in their unit, but he couldn't believe it.

"—to convince her you love her," Gale finished, his voice getting more and more quiet with each word so the 'you love her' came out in a whisper. He sounded sure but broken, like he was convinced of what he felt but it was ripping at his insides.

"Gale, _do you really think I gave us up for Katniss?_ ," Peeta persisted as that knot tightened in his gut again and he started to feel nauseous. "You really think I wasn't thinking of you in the arena? Wasn't scared you'd see me with the Careers and think I was betraying you and Katniss? Or that I wasn't thinking I'd never get to see you again?" His words were all whispered but sped up faster and faster as he got riled up, to the point that he wasn't even sure if Gale understood him.

The words seemed to hit home, though, as Gale dropped his head in his hands and grabbed his own hair. His eyes closed again and he looked wound tighter than Peeta had ever seen him before.

He didn't say anything for a while and Peeta looked around to check that everyone in their unit was still asleep before he finally shifted his hand the rest of the way and carefully settled it on Gale's knee. He squeezed the muscle beneath Gale's fatigues and that seemed to finally snap Gale out of it.

"I should have volunteered to take your place in the first Games."

"You couldn't," Peeta replied immediately, "she'd never have forgiven you. You had to take care of her family. They matter more to her than her life."

"I chose Katniss over you."

Peeta couldn't find the words to reply to that. His mouth opened to say something, anything, then closed again.

"Gale—,"

Gale looked down at Peeta's hand on his leg then and sighed, his own hand finally moving to cover Peeta's until their fingers intertwined. Peeta could feel his cheeks flush at the touch and his thumb moved to slide over the other boy's, stroking the skin there in a quiet show of reassurance and love and forgiveness for something he had never held against him in the first place.

"I guess we both have a Katniss problem," Gale murmured.

"She's your best friend. I'm your—your lover," Peeta frowned, disliking the word but unsure what else to use, "and she's my friend. Just my friend. Alright?"

"Yeah," Gale nodded, "right, you're right." He took a breath and allowed himself a moment to enjoy the feeling and warmth of Peeta's hand until a yawn burst through. "We should get some more sleep."

"Yeah," Peeta agreed, then shifted back and settled in, breaking the contact. It was enough for him just to have that moment, but they both knew they couldn't let it continue in case Cressida or Pollux woke. Katniss knew and wouldn't say anything, and Cressida probably wouldn't care, but the less people that knew now the better. For their safety. For the 'romance.'

Peeta watched Gale lay back and shift under the fur blanket Tigris had provided, trying to get comfortable against the hard concrete floor. He almost moved to close his eyes and try to drift off into yet another short, fitful sleep when Gale broke the silence so quietly Peeta had to really focus to make out the words.

"She would pick you, you know. She couldn't survive without you."

"Doesn't matter," Peeta replied, just as quiet, "because I couldn't survive without you."

**Author's Note:**

> First published fic since I was 12. Seriously. But I really like this one, so I'm putting myself out there. 
> 
> This implies that Peeta and Gale have been together since before the first book, though in a "young, uncertain, fragile love" sort of way (they're super young and on different sides of District 12, so that's how I see them) that's left them really mixed up about the events around the Games. My own little headcanon.
> 
> Some of the dialogue is lifted from the book, but adjusted to fit an alternative look at this scene.


End file.
